Garage Cleanup 3

Today it was SO HARD to even get out of BED!! I just couldn't force myself to GET UP!!! But eventually I did and eventually I even got some work done out in the garage. I also burned most of my burn pile since everything was wet and the wind wasn't bad. I got rid of 89% of the VHS tapes I found (Keeping family home videos until I figure out a way to put them on my computer and create family home videos on DVD), and about 60% of the clothes got thrown away or put in donation bags (another three bags in the van). I filled the huge garbage bag and two smaller ones and they're in the back of the truck, and I filled up ONE storage container of clothes to keep (so far). I only got rid of about 20% of the Halloween costumes I found and the rest went in a bin for the kids to go through later. A couple might get used for Halloween this year.

And I got started on the books.

Getting rid of books, ESPECIALLY ones I haven't read, is extremely hard for me. I love books!!  So I set aside all the children's books to be gone through later (and probably in the house). Then I donated as many as I could make myself donate, and the rest I decided to wrap up in plain wrapping paper and I'm setting them in a big box. That way, when I need a new book I have NO IDEA what book I'm getting. I figure it's also a good way to get the kids involved with my books. Bored? BAM ~ mystery book; read it. LOL

Not a whole lot done (and by golly the spiders are AWFUL this year!!!) but enough to feel like I accomplished a little! Off for dinner!

Pics:


Our little artists are the reason why some of my books couldn't be donated ;)

I have had this poster since I was EIGHT YEARS OLD. It was physically traumatizing to let this go, but it isn't in good enough condition to hang up so.........I had to say good bye :(  :'(

Found my Popple!!! Any '90s kids will recognize this cute little creature!!

Closed:

 Open:

No I did NOT get rid of my Popple!!! KEEPING IT FOREVER!!! It went into the "bring in the house" pile. :)

Hooray!

Garage Cleanup Project 2

I worked hard all day yesterday. I've done (so far) exactly NOTHING today. Either because it's dark and rainy (and FREEZING!!!) or because I did so much yesterday that I don't feel like doing anything today. (This massive headache really isn't motivating me anyway.)

I made piles outside the garage so I could sweep everything out IN the garage, as far as what I got cleaned. I NOW have a six foot by TWELVE foot cleaned area (not organized yet, though).

I have a "storage" pile that is so far only two and a half crates, and is mostly clothes I'm not willing to give up yet. I have one decorations box started but it has Halloween AND Christmas in it so obviously I need two more boxes ;). I have a camping/fishing pile, a gardening pile and a automotive items pile. I have a recycling pile that's getting pretty big already, two and a half enormous trash-bags full of trash, a rather large burn pile, and a pool pile. There's also a pile of sorts which is just things to fix up the house with, such as sheets of plywood and siding.

I have three regular-sized trash bags full of clothes that will go to the Goodwill and they are already in my van to be dropped off the next time I go to town.

I did find a box full of stuff to bring into the house. A couple purses, some clothes, pens, etc.

As it is I have nearly enough room to park a car in my garage right now!!! But I still need the space to keep cleaning out there and to get everything organized. I would say I'm about 2/5ths of the way done with that garage. It feels great to be getting rid of all that stuff we don't need.

So far the hardest things will be going through my books, and deciding whether or not I will keep my wedding dress. I mean, on one hand it only cost $90 and it has some stains from being in storage that I really don't know if I can ever get out, PLUS there's no WAY I'll ever fit in it again!!! (Why would I need to wear a wedding gown again anyway??) But on the other hand my stepdaughter wants me to keep it so she can get married in it one day (yeah, I have no idea why, either) and it is pretty sentimental and social convention to keep the gown you got married in.  I will have to pull it out, photograph it, and see what others think I should do with it. I'm strange, I guess, to not care as much about my wedding dress as I do about those New York jeans (my original "skinny" jeans from when I thought 120 pounds was fat), but I might just have to get rid of them both anyway.

Here's a couple pics!



Good bye old VHS video tapes!!! I have no idea why I kept y'all for so long!!! (I did keep family home videos in hopes that someday I will somehow be able to transfer them to my computer and begin making family home video DVDs for my whole family)

Yes, I'm a semi-recovering paper hoarder:

I say "semi-recovering" because I had to sit down and go through all these papers, I couldn't just put them in the burn pile. MOST of these were my kid's school papers from the 2007-8 school year. I kept a few choice papers and I did get rid of most of the rest.

Going through clothes was easy. Too small, too small, holes in it, too small......except when my daughter came out ~ "This is SO CUTE!!! WE HAVE TO SAVE THIS FOR ME SOMEDAY!!!" I finally had to tell her as much as I loved her help I really didn't need help with the clothes and then go through all the clothes in the keep pile AGAIN to make sure she didn't sneak some donated clothes in it (and she did, that stinker).

I was doing so well I didn't want to stop!!! But I DO have kids and a husband, and they DO occasionally need to eat, so I HAD to stop and make dinner.

It was a great day.

Unnecessary Charity

So my very best friend hosted a sleepover birthday party for her daughter. Twelve girls ranging in age from 7 to 12 slept over, and I'm sure you can imagine the drama and noise that accompanied this little horde of girls.

The next morning one girl was in semi-hysterics because she forgot to pack socks and she absolutely, positively could NOT be seen wearing tennis shoes without socks!!!

So my friend, who had very little sleep and I imagine very little coffee, drove this little girl to the local dollar store to buy her some socks. They were both in their pajamas. Up at the cash register my friend realized she had gotten "baby" sized socks and left the girl at the cash register while she ran back and switched the baby socks with girl-sized socks. When she came back the little girl handed her a FIFTY DOLLAR BILL and said some man gave it to her with the instructions to give the money to my friend saying, "tell your mom that your clothes are on me."

After paying for the socks with her own money, my friend searched the store and the parking lot looking for this man to give him his money back. She interrogated several people who were there wanting to know who this man was and how she could find him to give him his money back. No such luck, the man disappeared and no one knew who he was.

She felt a little horrified (as I would) because she (and this girl) looked so awful that the man assumed they were homeless or otherwise could barely afford decent clothing that some random guy who was trying to do the right thing spent fifty bucks to help them out.

The thing is, she is gainfully employed and making pretty decent money. Her husband is likewise employed and they really look nice most of the time.

She didn't know what to do with the money. I told her if it was ME I'd keep it in a secret pocket of my purse and the next time I saw someone at the supermarket or grocery store trying to decide what to put back cuz they didn't have enough money I'd whip it out and "pay it forward," but she said she'd lose track of it and end up accidentally spending it thinking it was hers.

She ultimately decided to give it to a local charity.

It was sure nice of that guy but he did his good deed on a person who didn't really need it.

Over all I thought it was pretty funny! But at the same time I feel a little bad for that guy for judging my friend on what she looked like that morning.

What would YOU do with that fifty bucks??

Get ready for the horror (pics)

Day 2: I started cleaning the garage. I actually didn't get a whole lot of time to do it because I had four other things I had to drive to do, but what I accomplished in a short amount of time made me happy. I now have a four foot by four foot area cleaned and organized LOL.  I have a keep pile that is (so far) very small, I've thrown away two rather large garbage bags full of junk, I have a burn pile for either a kid or my husband to take care of, and then there's the "maybe" pile.

The "maybe" pile is a pile of stuff I'm not sure if we should keep or not. Right now it is MOSTLY my husband's rusty tools, car parts (most of which are rusty also) and a few things I don't even know what they are. The maybe pile sucks because I literally have NO idea what to do with them. They are my husband's things so he is going to have to make that call. However he doesn't have a whole lot of extra time so my maybe pile might be sitting there for months!!! I've already asked him if he wants to take a look at it, but he said he will wait until it's a little bigger...... well.....bigger I'm sure it will get!!!

Okay BEFORE PICS:: (please contain your revulsion - I know what it looks like!) :

This (above) is my pool table. Sad, right? I never stacked anything up on it but at the same time I haven't been USING it either, so I guess I'm partly to blame. ( A very SMALL part lol)

THAT (above) is the pile of "stuff" I have to traverse in order to get to my weight bench. I still get to it and use it fairly often....I just have to skirt around...."the pile."

Another view of "the pile."

 Fishing and camping gear. I will take the blame for this one...when we went on a fishing/camping trip and we came home I was so exhausted I made the kids unload everything, and when the kids unload THIS is how well they put everything back.


Gross right? I have a lot of work to do!!!  Like I said I now have a 4'x4' area cleaned up and I was happy with that progress. While I was cleaning it out I found a mini-cooler with two Pepsi cans in it. THESE:

Haha!! I was going to open them up and put them in the recycle but that one on the right looks like it might not be safe to open so against my set-in recycling mania I set these two in the trash. I estimate they've been in that cooler for two years. :)

That's it for today!! Today I have to clean my computer room before the cable person gets here (in about an hour) THEN I have to go pick up groceries and THEN I can work on the garage some more!! :D

Garage Cleanup Post 1

Two years ago I had cleaned and organized my garage and it was beautiful. I had a car in there, a weight bench/workout area, and a pool table. All my holiday decorations (mostly Christmas and Halloween, but quite a bit of Easter, too, and a spackling of 4th of July) were up in the loft along with clothes in storage, and I had my little library and yard care section, and my husband had his table saws and various tools and fishing equipment. It was glorious. I even decorated it with white Christmas lights to make it like a party room. There's even a mini-fridge in there!!!

Then somehow my kids got at it, we removed the car and somehow that space got filled up with junk, and somehow there was no longer enough room for all our decorations in the loft. It is JUST AWFUL in there. It made me SO MAD thinking of how much work I put into making our garage a fabulous game/work/exercise room and it just got trashed!! I was so mad I refused to do anything about it so OF COURSE it just got worse and worse and WORSE!! My garage currently looks like an episode of hoarders and I just can't take it anymore.

 I'm going to go through everything in there, and everything that isn't an undamaged decoration or something we NEED, I'M GETTING RID OF IT!!! I'm not discussing anything with my husband or children. If I decide I don't want it in my garage, it's OUT OF HERE!! I expect the truck will be filled with crap to be A) taken to a donation drop-off or B) taken to the dump, every single day. I will not stop until the garage is what I wanted it to be two years ago!!

I figure if I keep this blog updated with my progress I won't get frustrated and quit halfway (or a quarter of the way ~ it's awfully hot this time of year) through. So I'm getting started today and pics coming soon to shame my BAD BAD family!! (I will take partial blame....but I did not set ONE SINGLE THING on that pool table!!! PLUS I am the ONLY one keeping the weight bench clear so I can use it!!!)

Wish me luck! Pics coming soon.

MISSING TEEN ALERT!!

This is my cousin's 16 year-old daughter Lexy. She is missing. She was last seen last night around 10 when she went to bed. If anyone sees her please call 217-597-9388 or 217-597-9386.